Charges of violations of the Environmental Quality Act are brought against those responsible for a clandestine drug laboratory where chemicals were dumped into the environment. This is the first time that Quebec law has been used to address environmental damage caused by organized crime during the production of synthetic drugs.
The Ministry of Environment announced criminal charges against two individuals on Monday. They are Roxane Savard, owner of an estate in Danville, in Estrie, as well as Emmanuel Pereira, the operator of a clandestine laboratory dismantled on site in 2020 by the Sûreté du Québec. Both have already pleaded guilty to a series of criminal charges related to the production of methamphetamine and received respective penitentiary sentences of three years and seven years.
If they are found guilty of environmental offenses, they will also have to pay fines.
“Being the owner of this place, Mr.me Savard is accused of failing to take the necessary measures to ensure that residual materials deposited or discharged, such as drug production and processing residues, were stored, treated or disposed of in an authorized location. These facts are also accused of Mr. Pereira as responsible for this place,” the ministry declared in a press release.
Laboratory linked to Hells Angels
The Press revealed last October that for the first time, the department was trying to make organized crime pay for the mountains of toxic contaminants it dumps into the environment during the production of methamphetamine. Local production of this drug, controlled largely by the Hells Angels, has polluted streams, rivers, lakes, fields and forests for years.
The dismantled laboratory in Danville on M’s landme Savard in 2020 also produced for a network linked to the criminal biker group.
When the police arrived, several barrels appeared to have been emptied of their contents into large vats, similar to those in mechanical workshops. These were connected to a pipe system that led underground to a series of buried blue plastic barrels. The top walls of the barrels had small holes in them, according to a report produced by the Environment Ministry’s Special Operations Unit obtained by The Press.
According to the document filed at the Sherbrooke courthouse, the first Ministry inspector to arrive at the site of the search noticed obvious “signs of environmental impacts” on the property. She had noted the presence of dead trees and the absence of vegetation around the laboratory’s ventilation outlets, a sign that no plants were able to survive in the fumes escaping from them.
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
The Danville laboratory was one of the largest dismantled in Quebec.
Dangerous mercury chloride
A test carried out with water had also demonstrated that the laboratory’s homemade filtration system allowed products to flow into nature.
In the report consulted by The Pressinvestigators said they had reasonable grounds to believe that the pollutant spills that took place “during the production of methamphetamine” violated the Environmental Quality Act. They note that “mercury chloride is the most dangerous product in the production of this narcotic”, but also list a series of other chemicals that could be involved.
The lawsuit’s allegations have not yet been tested in court.